Svoboda Party MPs Ihor Miroshnichenko and Oleksandr Myrny have sent a deputy inquiry to Ukraine's prosecutor general, the chief of the Security Service of Ukraine and the chairman of the State Migration Service of Ukraine with a demand that the bass guitarist of the Bloodhound Gang punk band be declared persona non grata in Ukraine and that he be brought to justice.
“The Ukrainian authorities should have immediately responded to the desecration of state symbols. However, there is no response from officials. This shows that there is no official in Ukraine who defends the honor and dignity of Ukrainians,” the press service of the Svoboda Party quoted Miroshnichenko as saying on Monday.
The press service noted that along with a Ukrainian flag, a Russian flag was also desecrated at the same concert.
“Russia immediately responded. The Russian authorities immediately banned a planned concert in Kuban, and the band was banned from entering the territory of the state,” Svoboda said.
A co-initiator of the inquiry, Myrny, in turn, said: “If there is also no proper response from the authorities to the deputy inquiry, it will show only that the current authorities are interested only in their personal enrichment. The inaction of officials in this situation is blatant disrespect for Ukraine’s national symbols.”
Ukrainian media reported earlier that the scandal-hit U.S. rock group started its CIS tour in Ukraine.
“A rock musician urinated on the stage, targeting the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag” during a concert in Kyiv on July 30, but the audience was very much amused, media reports said.
The next day, bassist Jared Hasselhoff, 41, pretended to use the Russian flag as toilet paper at the Ibiza club in Odesa. He threw the desecrated flag into the crowd, where it was caught by a fan.
The incidents were video-taped and posted on the Internet, after which the rock group’s concert in southern Russia was cancelled, even though the rock musicians had been paid for it. They were pelted by tomatoes and eggs prior to the departure from the Anapa airport, and they were also attacked by Cossacks, one of whom wanted to strangle the bassist with an American flag. The flag was torn into pieces in front of the musicians after police intervened.
Although the rock group apologized, it was forced to leave Russia.
